MALAYSIA MATHEMATICAL OLYMPIAD 2007/2008

Malaysian Mathematical Sciences Society

Malaysia IMO 2008 Selection and Training Program

The Malaysia IMO 2008 Selection and Training Program is a yearlong program to identify talented Malaysian students to represent the country in IMO 2008. The program is organized by the Malaysian Mathematical Sciences Society (Persatuan Sains Matematik Malaysia, or PERSAMA), under the purview of the Ministry of Education, Malaysia. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Arsmah Ibrahim, the Vice President of PERSAMA, served as the Chairperson of the PERSAMA IMO 2008 Committee. The training sessions were jointly organized by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Daud Mohamad (Leader, IMO 2008), Assoc. Prof. Dr. Jamaludin M. Ali (Leader, IMO 2007), Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mat Rofa Ismail (Leader, IMO 2005) and Suhaimi Ramly (Deputy Leader, IMO 2007). National Mathematical Olympiad (23 June 2007) The rst selection test is the National Mathematical Olympiad (Olimpiad Matematik Kebangsaan, or OMK), which is open to all Malaysian high school students. A total of 7,872 students, distributed over 14 exam centers, took part in OMK 2007. IMO Selection Test (3 November 2007) The top 120 contestants from the OMK were selected to take part in the IMO Selection Test. IMO Training Camp 1 (712 December 2007) The top 30 contestants from the IMO Selection Test were invited to attend the centralized IMO Training Camp 1 at MARA Institute of Technology in Shah Alam. During the six-day camp, students were given lectures and daily exams, culminating in a Final Exam on the last day. IMO Training Camp 2 & Asia Pacic Mathematics Olympiad (APMO) (711 March 2008) From the rst Training Camp, 17 students were further shortlisted to attend the IMO Training Camp 2. On the last day of this camp, the students wrote the APMO. Among them, three went on to win APMO awards: Loke Zhi Kin won a Silver, while Saw Yihui and Lim Yu Wei won a Bronze each. IMO Training Camp 3 & Final Training Sessions (2428 May 2008) Ten shortlisted students were invited to attend the IMO Training Camp 3. The students were given daily IMO style exams as well as lectures on advanced topics. At the end of the camp, the Malaysia IMO 2008 team was nalized. They are:

3 LOKE Zhi Kin SAW Yihui LIM Yu Wei Muhamad Amir M. FADZIL Joshua LIM Kai Tsen THAM Ying Hong Seaeld HS, Selangor USJ 12 HS, Selangor Keat Hwa HS, Kedah MARA College Banting, Selangor St. Davids HS, Malacca Catholic HS, Selangor

Throughout June and early July, the nal training took place in the form of weekly meetings and correspondence exams.

Selected Problems from the Malaysia IMO 2008 Selection and Training Program
1. Find all pairs (a, b) of positive integers such that a4 + 1 and b2 1 are not divisible by 39 but (a4 + 1)(b2 1) is. 2. Given an acute triangle ABC. Points A1 , B1 , C1 lie on ray BC, CA and AB respectively, such that triangle A1 B1 C1 is similar to triangle ABC. It is known that 2 A1 B = B1 C1 . Show that A1 B1 C1 B + B1 C1 A1 B = A1 C1 . 3. Let b, n > 1 be integers. Suppose that for each k > 1 there exists an integer ak such that b an is divisible by k. Prove that b is an nth power. k 4. Let n > m 1 be positive integers, and consider the set M = {(x, y) | x, y N, 1 x, y n}. Determine the least value v(m, n) with the property that for any subset P M with |P | = v(m, n) there exist m + 1 elements Ai = (xi , yi ) P, i = 1, 2, . . . , m + 1, for which the values xi are all distinct, and the values yi are also all distinct.

Solution
1. Find all pairs (a, b) of positive integers such that a4 + 1 and b2 1 are not divisible by 39 but (a4 + 1)(b2 1) is. Solution: All fourth powers are congruent to 0 or 1 (mod 3), so we have a4 + 1 1 or 2 (mod 3). Therefore, for (a4 + 1)(b2 1) to be divisible by 39, 3 must divide b2 1. But since 39 does not divide b2 1, we have that 13 divides a4 + 1. Here, we can check that a4 + 1 can only be congruent to 1, 2, 4, 10 (mod 13), so there are no solution. Alternatively, we note that a4 + 1 = 0 (mod 13) implies a8 = 1 (mod 13). By Fermats Little Theorem, we have a12 = 1 (mod 13). Therefore, we can conclude that agcd(8,12) = 1 (mod 13) or a4 = 1 (mod 13), which contradicts the fact that a4 = 1 (mod 13). (Solution by Joshua Lim) 2. Given an acute triangle ABC. Points A1 , B1 , C1 lie on ray BC, CA and AB respectively, such that triangle A1 B1 C1 is similar to triangle ABC. It is known that 2 A1 B = B1 C1 . Show that A1 B1 C1 B + B1 C1 A1 B = A1 C1 . Solution: Notice that A1 BC1 + A1 B1 C1 = 180 . Reect point B to point B along side A1 C1 . Now the points A1 , B1 , C1 , B are concyclic. By Ptolemys theorem, A1 B1 B C1 + B1 C1 A1 B = A1 B1 C1 B + B1 C1 A1 B = A1 C1 B1 B . Now it remains to be shown that B1 B = A1 C1 . Let B1 B and A1 C1 intersect at point P . Thus B1 P B1 C1 = =1 A1 P A1 B and BP A1 B = = 1. C1 P B1 C 1 Therefore, B1 B = A1 P + C1 P = A1 C1 . (Solution by Saw Yihui) 3. Let b, n > 1 be integers. Suppose that for each k > 1 there exists an integer ak such that b an is divisible by k. Prove that b is an nth power. k Solution: Let k = b2 . Then there are integers ak and m such that b an = mb2 , or k an = b(1mb). The numbers b and 1mb are relatively prime, and since their product k is an nth power, each of the number is an nth power as well. (Solution by Loke Zhi Kin) 4. Let n > m 1 be positive integers, and consider the set M = {(x, y) | x, y N, 1 x, y n}.

6 Determine the least value v(m, n) with the property that for any subset P M with |P | = v(m, n) there exist m + 1 elements Ai = (xi , yi ) P, i = 1, 2, . . . , m + 1, for which the values xi are all distinct, and the values yi are also all distinct. Solution: We claim that v(m, n) = mn + 1. Partition M into n sets Pk = {(x, y) | x + y k n 0}, k = 1, 2, . . . , n. The pigeonhole principle now forces at least m + 1 elements from P to belong to a same Pk ; let them be Ai = (xi , yi ). Now, if we assume xi = xj , then from xi + yi k n xj + yj k it follows that yi n yj . But yi , yj {1, 2, . . . , n}, it follows that yi = yj , i.e. Ai = Aj . Conversely, mn + 1 is the least cardinality of P to warrant the claimed result; for if |P | = mn, one can pick P = {(x, y) | 1 x m, 1 y n}; then any m + 1 elements from P , be them Ai = (xi , yi ), will share at least one xi = xj (pigeonhole principle again). (from the Romanian Selection Test for the Junior Balkan Mathematical Olympiad 2007. Solution from the Romanian Mathematical Competition 2007 booklet).

Malaysian Mathematical Sciences Society

The Malaysian Mathematical Sciences Society was established in 1970 by a group of mathematicians from Universiti Malaya to replace the defunct Malayan Mathematical Sciences Society. Currently the Society has more than 300 members, among them professional mathematicians, academics, teachers, students, and math enthusiasts. The stated mission of the Malaysian Mathematical Sciences Society is to uphold mathematical sciences and its practitioners through excellence in articulation and sophistication, mathematical discovery, unity of knowledge and development of human capital. The Society is involved in numerous mathematics related activity in the country. The Society publishes two serials for its members, Bulletin Of The Malaysian Mathematical Society (Second Series) and Menemui Matematik (Discovering Mathematics). Since 1996, the Society has been tasked by the Ministry of Education to select and train students for the IMO. Ocial website: www.persama.org.my.

About our Sponsor

PETRONAS, the acronym for Petroliam Nasional Berhad, was incorporated on 17 August 1974. Over the years, PETRONAS has grown to become a fully-integrated oil and gas corporation and is ranked among FORTUNE Global 500s largest corporations in the world. PETRONAS has four subsidiaries listed on the Bursa Malaysia and has ventured globally into more than 32 countries worldwide in its aspiration to be a leading oil and gas multinational of choice. Ocial website: www.petronas.com.